Glory Days
26 April 2017 | Ostia, Rome
Sade
Glory Days
I had a friend was a big baseball player
Back in high school
He could throw that speed ball by you
Make you look like a fool boy
Saw him the other night at this roadside bar
I was walking in, he was walking out
We went back inside sat down had a few drinks
But all he kept talking about was
Glory days, well they'll pass you by
Glory days, in the wink of a young girl's eye
Glory days, Glory days
Bruce Springsteen
I love this song, and I think we all have a temptation to sit down and reminisce about the 'good old days', especially when meeting with old friends. When we set off on this mad adventure we had only one plan.... We had to love life to the full. This last month has been absolutely jam packed with glory days!
1. Easter Monday
On Easter Monday the Romans descend in their thousands to Ostia beach to enjoy the sunshine and to have family BBQ's. We cycled down the promenade and found a cafe with a perfect leather settee right on the beach. In front of us we had a glorious Italian cinema of life. The sun shone and the Mediterranean sea roared up the sandy beach. There was acres of flesh on show in every colour of thong and mankini. The Italian men do love a bit of waxing, and it looked as if they had gone for the full monty 'sack, back and crack'!! Indian men laiden down with rucksacks full of batiks wandered the beach trying to sell them and we sat with a glass of wine admiring it all.
2. What oil leak?
After three weeks of Davide ignoring our phone calls we eventually got hold of Mihael, a lovely Romanian engineer who spent three very long days working on the engine. The only downside, was that this big, burly man (who could pick up our 100kg gear box alone) was terrified of Tinker and Scrappy and would not board the boat until their wagging tails and welcoming bodies were locked away in the bedroom. This really did not make Scrappy very happy, and his howls got louder and louder each day until we let him out to lie on the settee. He would peer in the engine room, trying desperately to make eye contact and a new friend. After working for 12 hours the oil was still going everywhere, and Mihael discovered that it was a wrong part we had had delivered from the UK, just a millimetre too big. On Easter Saturday he drove Jules to a local scrap yard, where they took an old boat engine apart and returned two hours later with part of a gear box!!!! All of this was at no extra cost so I went out and bought an Easter Egg for his son, and we gave him some money for a beer and he was really chuffed. Mihael spoke no English (apart from oh fxxk) so Jules' knowledge of Italian engine parts has improved greatly!!!
3. Making new friends
It is always nice to make new friends and we have met a lovely Belgian couple, Thierry and Genevieve. They cooked us a lovely meal, and so the challenge was on to cook something nice in return.... especially as Thierry believed that English cuisine was not the greatest. As it was over Easter I did think about a standard roast dinner, but went for a curry instead. Whilst I may have made great strides in Anglo-Belguim cuisine relationships, it nearly ended in disaster over 'tisane". They like a herbal tea after dinner, and so I went out and bought, what looked like a pretty packet. We offered them round and it was then that Genevieve pointed out that I had actually bought laxative tea!!!!!! I quickly binned the whole lot. How Jules and I laughed about it afterwards. I think the English have the upper edge. A glass of port rounds the meal off in a far better way!!!! The last laugh is still on us over Britex, however. They are as dumbfounded about it as we still are! Genevieve has made me a beautiful bracelet, so we must be forgiven for the tea incident.
4. The kindness of strangers
When we sailed in the South Coast of England, there was so much competition amongst weekend sailors with rather posh accents. Even on a sunny day, they would walk up Cowes High Street on the Isle of Wight in full wet weather gear and gortex boots, so everyone knew they had got off a boat. However, amongst live aboards there is a lot of admiration and a sharing of where to find the best deals, safest anchorages and pretty spots. We also share films, charts and kindle books. The other day it was the kindness of an Italian family that had come down for Easter and had fallen in love with Tinker that astounded me. As they returned to their home, they left a big bag of Italian cheeses and hams on the handlebars of our bikes, declaring that they did not want to take their smelly cheeses in the car. Yesterday I was late arriving to the market on a Bank Holiday, and they were just packing up. Getting beetroot in Italy has proven very difficult and I did not want to leave Rome without buying as much as possible. I tried everything to get the stall owner to understand what I was after and even google translate did not help using the word 'barbabietola', instead of 'barbarossa'. In the end the entire market came to help and it was the butcher who eventually worked out what I wanted. Even though it had been packed away, they took everything out of the stores to get it for me, and the butcher was rewarded with a beer!
Our local cafe is run by a young lad and his pregnant girlfriend. He seems very pleased that we frequent his cafe, and often gives Jules cake on the house. As it is enroute to our favourite Indian restaurant, we pop in for a drink before hand. It is a very local place and he only sells what the locals drink. This did not include red wine!! The old men go in for a glass of sweet white, which they down in one. He was delighted to be able to show us on one coffee morning that he had got red wine in especially for me. At the local supermarket the security guy now comes out with me to my bike (which he keeps an eye on whilst I shop)and helps me squeeze my shopping into the panniers, over the handlebars and even over the wheel rims.
It has been wonderful to be part of the local community, even if we have become known as the mad English couple with the black dogs and we shall miss it very much.
5. Multi cultural society
It has been great to be in a multi cultural society once more. Jules has enjoyed the kebabs at 'Istanbul' and I have loved their felafel and mint salad. We have had a brilliant time in the Turkish cafe with thick sludgy coffee, fresh mint tea and hooky pipes. The Chinese restaurant does a rather delighful three course meal for £5 and we are now given fortune cookies before we leave. We went to a Japanese restaurant for a lunchtime Sushi but had to guess at the menu, and ordered a little too much raw tuna that Jules manfully finished. The Indian Restaurant is rather gorgeous,and has incense wafting in the air and the most amazing prawn starter covered in spicy chickpea flour. We have become regulars and they now serve us limoncello after the meal and free popodums and dips to start.
I decided on Easter Saturday at 9pm, after a large glass of wine to frequent the Chinese hairdressers which was full of Italian women getting their hair coiffured ready for Easter Sunday. There were about twenty staff, and after indicating that I wanted a trim, I was ushered to the basin and given a wash and massage. Then the Chinese girl, did a wonderful job of blow drying my hair. I kept trying to point out, that I actually wanted it cut but she jabbed me in the shoulder to turn back round and indicated that she knew best. Once the hair was beautifully blow dried, she started cutting at my left ear, whizzed the chair around and kept cutting until she got to my right ear. She took a look and cut little bits off that were a little too long. She finished with the straighteners and a bit of gel and declared me fit to leave. After paying €8 I went to leave and she noticed a piece that was not quite right, and we stood in the doorway of the shop as she cut a little more off the left hand side, leaving it a little lop sided!! Jules said I looked like Johhny Depp in his role as Willy Wonker and my sister, seeing me in my new green dungarees, declared that if I dyed my hair green I would look like an Umper Lumper!!!
6. The Pilgrims Trail.
We have borrowed my friend's American travel guide to Rome, which is quite different from an English guidebook and a lot of fun. It offers some amazing walks and we did one called the Pilgrims Route. After a beautiful lunch of sourdough bread, a basil and tomato starter and John Dory and Salad main we were fit to go. We started at The Church of Santa Maria Maggiore where we were in admiration of the magnificent marble image of Pope Pius IX looking meaningfully at the glass case said to contain the wood from Jesus's crib. For me, what was far more interesting was the faith of one man, who had a vision that he was to build this church dedicated to Mary, where a snowflake fell. The next morning snow had fallen on the local hill, and work started immediately.
The next church we visited was San Giovanni In Laterano where they have some of the bones of St Peter and St Paul. Apparently the Vatican has kept it very quiet that when they took DNA comparison of the bones of those of St Peter in the Vatican church the DNA did not match!!!! What was awesome was the image of Christ on the ceiling. This was the first church to be built in Rome after the Christians were allowed to 'come out' and worship openly without fear of reprisal. One of the first images of Christ was allowed to be painted here and it must have been a glorious sight to early worshippers. In AD326 Emperor Constantine's mother brought home the 28 marble steps of Pontius Pilate's residence in Jerusalem. Jesus climbed these on the day of his arrest, and faithful penitents climb them on their knees today. Before Jules was given time to think about it I nipped into the queue and we were both crawling up on our knees. After 10 steps we were in agony and could not wait to get to the end, especially as I had got chemical burns on my knees from cleaning the decks the previous day. It felt very humbling to go up with a group of Indian ladies who were on pilgrimage, and their singing was stunning. The steps are marble and covered in walnut wood, with glass holes to show the blood of Christ. I know it sounds scathing, but even if they are the real steps,am I to believe a culture that had slaves for everything, never cleaned the blood away? However, none of that actually mattered. It was just knowing that we were following behind pilgrims who have made this journey for over 1500 years, and thinking of others and their needs as I climbed each step.
We rounded off the day in The Church of St Peter in chains, and again saw the chains that Peter is supposed to have worn when Herod jailed him in Jerusalem before an angel appeared and the chains fell off. The beauty of the church for me, lies in the marble statue of Moses by Michelangelo. The horns are the crowning touch. In medieval times the Hebrew word for "Ray of light" (halo) was mistranslated as "horn". Michelangelo knew better, but wanted to give the statue a kind of scary charisma.
I did a theology degree nearly 30 years ago, and whilst not being overtly Christian these places held a sense of awe and wonder. They felt calming,healing and incredibly peaceful. They hold great importance for the Christian church and have molded many people's faith as well as the course of the Church in Rome. I became part of that for a little while. It was a truly special day.
7. 0stia Antica
Ostia used to be the main trading port for Rome. The river changed course and mud buried Ostia about 1500 years ago. As a result it remained beautifully preserved and hidden until found by archaeologists. Wandering around we saw warehouses, mansions, shopping areas, food outlets, baths, latrines, necropolis, theatres, mills, squares and amazing statues and mosaics. It is set in a 70 acre park and was very peaceful and quiet. It was amazing walking around the warehouses, imagining the scene as goods from Sicily, Egypt and all of North Africa arrived here, before being consumed by Rome. The baths still had the fine mosaic of Neptune riding four horses through the sea. The grand square had more than 60 shops belonging to shipowners and traders. Most shops advertised their services by pictures for illiterate sailors and non Latin reading foreigners. We loved the elephant mosaic which marked the office of the Lybian traders who dealt in Ivory and exotic animals. It was an amazing day, and was rounded off by a superb picnic and an hour dozing in the hot sun.
Our time in Rome has come to an end, and I am both delighted to be moving on and sad as we have had such a great time here. We wanted the engine to be fixed, my Mom and sister to visit and to be on our way. Instead, we have stayed 5 weeks and it has been the tonic we both needed. We are now heading off to Corsica and Sardinia. From there to the Balearics, on to Barcelona, along to Gibraltar and Morocco and up to Portugal......then our most adventurous sail yet - an early August crossing to the Azores . We have finally made up our minds and our route is set.
These Glory days... don't let them pass you by!